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Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

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Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#91
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For 1:1 messages it doesnt matter, but breaks group chats when a green bubble is added

uhh...no it doesn't? I have a lot of group chats as the only Android (soon to be Pinephone) user. Group Chats work fine.

And you likely miss a ton of group chats where there are no android (or Pinephone) users because you’ve been excluded because group chats don’t work fine.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#92
post #91
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

uhh...no it doesn't? I have a lot of group chats as the only Android (soon to be Pinephone) user. Group Chats work fine.

And you likely miss a ton of group chats where there are no android (or Pinephone) users because you’ve been excluded because group chats don’t work fine.

....what? I am honestly having trouble parsing your meaning.

My family mostly has iPhones, and we have several group chats with me in it on Group MMS. They work fine.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#93
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It becomes terribly low-res. The MMS media limit means each video, if longer than a few seconds, has its bitrate crippled to fit in the limit. Photos too have their resolution lowered, less so than videos but if you send a bunch at once it gets worse.

I posted a longer explanation here of why that's the case if you're curious why: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26970035 TL;DR: This is carrier related.

It might be carrier related but the carriers seem extremely uninterested in solving the sms/mms problem at all.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#94
post #2

They would have captured 100% of the messaging market. Reminds me of '90s *Nix companies with sales bros wanting to sling around overpriced hardware, preventing expansion of the company in other fronts.

> They would have captured 100% of the messaging market.

Isn't that against their DNA? Apple doesn't like to capture market share - they instead go for high profit share regardless of marketshare.

High profit share but median market share helps to avoid antitrust regulatory action.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#95
post #92
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you likely miss a ton of group chats where there are no android (or Pinephone) users because you’ve been excluded because group chats don’t work fine.

....what? I am honestly having trouble parsing your meaning. My family mostly has iPhones, and we have several group chats with me in it on Group MMS. They work fine.

There are some features for group messaging on iMessage that aren’t available in Group MMS. If you add a non-iMessage user to your group, the group downgrades to using Group MMS, which does still work for basic messaging, but the group loses all of its iMessage-exclusive features.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#96
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on location, IMO. I was an Android user for years (since the Nexus One!) and the vast majority of my contacts were on iOS. My lack of iMessage was a constant frustration and I would have signed up in an instant. But I'm in the US, which has a disproportionately high amount of iOS users. Across the rest of the world iMessage would be competing with WhatsApp and its existing network (something the e-mails in th…

Strongly agree. The US is weird in two ways: 1. iOS being uncommonly popular (in other words: the US is weirdly rich compared to even most developed countries) 2. People texting a lot (maybe other countries’ carriers used to just make texting too expensive?) Outside the US, people more commonly use messaging apps, and there is less peer pressure to be on iMessage as it is less likely for someone (in a certain social…

>2. People texting a lot (maybe other countries’ carriers used to just make texting too expensive?)

Yes. US mobile plans gave enormous buckets (thousands) of SMS messages a month to mobile users 10-15 years ago, so there was little incentive to move to other mobile messaging systems.

Conversely, the lack of such generous SMS allotments in most non-US countries drove widespread adoption of WhatsApp/Facebook Messenger/etc.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. They could probably monetize that better than hardware sales too, most likely via Apple Wallet payments and data. And the whole blue/green bubble pretentiousness would have never happened, which is funny because so many Android users still have no idea that's even happening to them or just assume they don't need to care about anybody that cares about that. (protip: its affecting your life and relationships)

I'm in Australia, and here iPhones have about 50% of the smartphone market, with the other half being Android of course. I obviously know many iPhone users, including my wife and many close friends. I know of no one who uses iMessage. Here everyone uses Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp (and to a lesser extent Telegram and Signal). Is this iMessage fascinating a US thing? Why?

iMessage in the US took over before WhatsApp or Messenger landed. So it's still going strong based on that (although I wouldn't want to switch to a FB product, so I may be biased.) But SMSs are free and therefore the number of people who use SMS (or RCS, whatever it's followup is), is really high.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, a social group isn't a business gathering nor is it a calculated construct. We're talking about people following their natural attraction. People don't consciously 'organise' a group with some 'group manager' and a nice hierarchy, technology choice panels, and acquisition procedures. There isn't some grand evil plan where the 'group CEO' selects the technology that everyone now has to use. This is just users usin…

You're right that a lot of it isn't conscious. You're wrong that it isn't calculated.

I suppose if you only have 'calculating' friends that could be true. Most people just don't care and avoid the friction of change.

Re: Eddy Cue wanted to bring iMessage to Android in 2013

#100
post #2

They would have captured 100% of the messaging market. Reminds me of '90s *Nix companies with sales bros wanting to sling around overpriced hardware, preventing expansion of the company in other fronts.

I don't know. Android is not exactly a place with a lot of paid software. No way Apple would make it free for Android and ad supported. Maybe they could have come up with some kind of iCloud Android bundle, and maybe it would have done well, but I am not convinced there is a massive market for a paid consumer messaging service.
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